No representative from Punjab on MSP panel

Karam Prakash

New Delhi, December 17

Though the Centre had formed a committee on Minimum Support Price (MSP) in July this year, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar said there was no member from Punjab in the committee.

He said this in reply to a question by Punjab Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Sawhney, who has already lodged his protest in the ongoing Parliament session over the exclusion.

As per the Agriculture Minister, the committee consists of representatives from both the central government and state governments and farmers, agri-scientists and agri-economists to make the MSP more effective and transparent.

Lamenting the government, the MP asked why no representative, either an expert from Punjab Agriculture University or the Agriculture Commissioner or a government official, from the state had been included in the committee.

The committee was formed on the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while withdrawing the three contentious farm laws and it still has three vacant posts for members of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM). The reason: the union has rejected proposal of the committee formed by the government.

Reiterating their stand, Jagmohan Singh, a member of the SKM, said, “We have already rejected the committee. The chairman of the committee should be an agriculturist or an economist, but that is not the case. The so-called farmer leaders, who had nothing to do with farmer agitation, are members of the committee. We totally reject this committee and won’t be part of it.”

Non-official members’ post in CACP vacant

• The Minister in the RS revealed that two posts of non-official members of the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) are lying vacant
• The CACP is a body that recommends suport price for 23 crops, including wheat and rice
• The non-official members are representatives from the farming community